To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 31 January 2012, Official Report, column 37WS, on trade policy (opt-ins), what recent assessment he has made of the likely effects on the level of illegal logging in the Colombian and Peruvian Amazon of the EU-Andean (Peru and Colombia) Free Trade Agreement.

The EU's Sustainability impact assessment of the EU-Andean Agreement identified that increased market access for processed timber products could increase deforestation trends, including through illegal logging.

The agreement's sustainable development chapter contains provisions that are designed to mitigate this. All parties have committed to improve forest law enforcement and governance and promote trade in legal and sustainable forest products, such as developing mechanisms that allow verification of the legal origin of timber products, strengthening the role of independent supervision institutions and voluntary mechanisms for forest certification.